HDP: We demand urgent information from reliable sources

February 20, 2017

The Turkish military raided a Kurdish village of Kurukoy in Nusaybin, Mardin province. A Video taken by a Turkish soldier shows a house burning in the village. Pro-Kurdish media reports suggested that three Kurdish civilians been executed by the Turkish army under the excuse of membership of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK). Other graphic photos showed tortured and killed men in the village.

The Pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) released a statement demanding “urgent information from reliable sources” after a delegation from the HDP were prevented from entering the village by the Turkish authorities.

“Gory images and videos on social media, posted with the title ‘Images taken by soldiers’ only serve to increase our worries.” said the HDP statement. The HDP questioned the situation in the village” The fact that [HDP}deputies are denied entry to the village raises suspicion that the allegations of human rights abuses may be real.”

At the end of the statement, the HDP called upon the international organizations to “immediately investigate the allegations regarding Kuruköy.”

Since July 2015 when the Turkish government ended the peace process with the PKK, the Turkish military launched several military campaigns on the Kurdish towns and villages. The Turkish government also removed hundreds of elected Kurdish officials as part of a purge campaign against the Kurdish minority in the country.

Below is the statement by HDP:

Ongoing military operations and communications blackout in Kurdish villageWhat’s Happening in Kuruköy?
We demand urgent information from reliable sources.

For the last nine days, there has been no communication with the people in Kuruköy (Xereba Bava), a village in Turkey’s southeastern district of Nusaybin (Mardin province), that is under round-the-clock military curfew and has been cut off from electrical and telephone services in the region.

Gory images and videos on social media, posted with the title ‘Images taken by soldiers’, only serve to increase our worries. We have received statements from residents of neighboring villages that all Kuruköy inhabitants have been gathered in one house, their phones have been collected, and some are being systematically tortured and executed. Relatives of villagers have made similar claims. One of our deputies was able to talk to an inhabitant of the village. (Please see the appendix.)

HDP deputies were denied entry to the village yesterday. The fact that deputies are denied entry to the village raises suspicion that the allegations of human rights abuses may be real. Our deputies’ attempts to talk to the governor and the Ministry of Interior were of no avail. HDP deputies remain at the village’s perimeters and despite their efforts to gather information, no concrete progress has been made.

If these allegations are correct, the residents of Kuruköy are being subjected to inhumane and unacceptable treatment. What Kurds went through in the 1990s and experienced in the last two years increase our concerns regarding the fate of Kuruköy villagers.
We urge international organizations as well as all democratic entities and peace coalitions to immediately investigate the allegations regarding Kuruköy. We cannot remain silent in the face of oppression and attempted massacres.